Claire Martin

Unité Biologie Fonctionnelle & Adaptative, Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR 8251

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Title

The impact of metabolic status on olfactory processing

Abstract

Smell is one of the most important sensory cues for identifying food and plays a key role in food choice and consumption. Furthermore, olfaction is modulated by nutritional status. Although endocrine regulation is known to modulate olfactory physiology and behavior, it is unlikely to be the sole contributor to these effects. Despite evidence of an interconnection between the hypothalamus and the olfactory system, the impact of hypothalamic control on olfactory activity and olfactory-driven feeding behavior remains poorly understood. We investigated the influence of AgRP neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus on olfactory processing. Using two mouse models in which the activity of AgRP neurons was manipulated, we combined behavioral testing and in vivo calcium recording of granule cells using fiber photometry. Our data show that manipulating AgRP neuron activity affects olfactory behavior and granule cell activity independently of nutritional status. Our findings reveal a new neuronal pathway that can tune olfactory processing at the level of the olfactory bulb, in addition to endocrine regulation.

Biosketch

Claire Martin is a CNRS senior scientist working at the University Paris Cité and a member of the Unit of Functional and Adaptive Biology. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from Lyon in 2004, where she demonstrated the role of beta-band oscillations in olfactory behavior, particularly memory. In 2005, she joined Leslie Kay’s laboratory at the University of Chicago to further investigate the networks underlying memory acquisition and expression. In 2008, she was appointed as a CNRS researcher in the laboratory Imagerie et Modélisation en Neurobiologie et Cancérologie in Orsay, where she focused her research on sensory and multisensory processing, with a particular emphasis on olfaction. In 2016, she joined the Unit of Functional and Adaptive Biology, where she develops research themes on the sensory aspects of energy balance regulation and the role of neuron-astrocyte interactions in the physiopathology of obesity.